Saving lives for 75 years: 'Batman helped me find my voice'

By Henry Hanks, CNN

Updated 4:04 PM ET, Thu March 27, 2014

Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years9 photos

Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years – Matt MacNabb of Omaha, Nebraska, runs the fan site legionsofgotham.org. He is one of many Batman fans who collect all the Batman memorabilia they can get their hands on. With the popular comic book character's 75th birthday on Sunday, click through to take a look at some of these Bat-fans and their collections:

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Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years9 photos

Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years – Andy Seven compares the TV series' debut in 1966 to the Beatles appearing on the "Ed Sullivan Show" a few years before: "The Batman TV series was as close as television will ever get to replicating a pulpy comic book on film with vibrant colors, beautiful women, great gadgets, teen pop culture and some of the wildest villains ever seen on television."

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Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years9 photos

Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years – Austin, Texas resident Eli Vizcaino, seen here dressed as Batman, credits the character with helping him "find his voice." Vizcaino had a speech impediment as a child, and when he read Batman stories aloud as therapy, they freed his imagination.

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Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years9 photos

Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years – Evert Huizing's home in Akkrum, Netherlands, is filled with Batman collectibles, such as these figures of heroes and villains.

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Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years9 photos

Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years – Like so many Batman fans, Huizing says he can identify with the character, who has no real superpowers. "I still can't handle injustice, and I always would like to be Batman when I see injustice happen."

Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years – Cross, from Windsor, Ontario, has a number of notable Batman comic books from the various series' long run.

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Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years9 photos

Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years – Cross said he admires Batman because the superhero "helps those who can't help themselves, regardless of the physical cost to his body and mind, and the effect in the perception of his public identity."

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Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years9 photos

Hard-core 'Batman' fans celebrate 75 years – Seventy-five years later, the Batman franchise is still going strong. Vinyl figures of Batman characters (right) have grown in popularity in recent years.

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Story highlights

Batman celebrates his 75th birthday on Sunday

Fans of the character can identify with his humanity and overcoming trauma to do good

Joshua Paul Hawkins dealt with growing up in a broken home through emulating Batman

Fans shared their stories of identifying with Batman through CNN iReport

Hawkins lived in what he calls a "very broken home" as a child in Las Vegas. His parents got divorced when he was 8, and he described the atmosphere in the house as filled with "anger and sadness." However, he knew there was one thing he could count on: Batman.

He felt a bit like a loner, just like the character of Bruce Wayne, whose alter ego Batman first appeared on newsstands in "Detective Comics" #27 on March 30, 1939, and would be reinvented through countless movies, TV shows and books for the next 75 years.

(Time Warner is the parent company of DC Comics, the same as CNN.)

Readers were captivated by the story of how Bruce, heir to a vast fortune, witnessed his parents' murder at the hands of a mugger. As he grew older, Bruce was driven by vengeance and decided one night to take on the form of a bat to "strike terror" in the hearts of criminals.

"Being a child that young and watching your parents split up is a very harrowing experience," said Hawkins, now 26 and living in Seattle. "And in my head, the only way I could make any sense of it was likening it to being like Bruce Wayne when he lost his parents to something senseless and tried to find something good to bring out of it."

Despite the chaos at home, he could always rely on the 1989 "Batman" film making it all better. And after the 1992 animated series premiered, he came home every day, eagerly awaiting the show.

"It was a pure joy with me after every episode feeling inspired to keep going on the path I was going even if those around me didn't understand my way of doing things."

An inspiration to generations of people

In the 75 years since it began, the character of Batman has inspired many fans, young and old, in some cases because of a strong identification with the character.

Hawkins says he would have been a very different person if not for Batman, and that those emotions could have manifested themselves another way. He is a writer, creating stories that he hopes will inspire others just as Batman's did.

"Had Batman not given me the compass of justice, I may have been nothing more than a punk kid who bullied kids for how they looked or what they did or for whatever I fancied at the time," he said. "I wouldn't have gotten such good grades because I wouldn't have cared about school. And I may have even fallen into that dark place of feeling so angry and taking an unsavory means of trying to end what plagued me."

There is truly something universal to how people identify with Batman, said producer Michael Uslan, who has been involved in every "Batman" movie since 1989.

Uslan describes Batman's superpower as "his humanity": "When you see a young boy whose parents are murdered before his eyes ... he sacrifices his childhood in the belief that one person can make a difference, that he will get all the bad guys even if he has to walk through hell for the rest of his life," he explained. "That is an origin story that not only transcends borders but transcends cultures."

"Batman" comic book writer Scott Snyder put it this way: "He suffers a tragedy as a boy, and uses that tragedy as motivation to become a hero capable of preventing the same thing from happening to another child in Gotham City. There's something deeply inspiring in that."

Young people identify with the Caped Crusader

Andrea Letamendi, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and scientist, has studied Batman for years and notes that many young people can identify with his problems.

"Nearly three-quarters of youths have been exposed to at least one trauma by the time they hit adolescence," she said. "Childhood resiliency is also quite impressive -- only a fraction of youths who experience traumatic stress actually develop long-lasting mental health problems. We don't all put on a cape and cowl, but we are amazingly strong in the face of adversity."

The Nashville resident said he often keeps people at a distance and has problems letting them get close. He finds himself deep in thought on many occasions, much like Bruce Wayne, but he also channels it into something positive.

He remembers a dramatic scene from the 1990s "Batman" animated series in which Robin confronts his parents' killer and attempts to kill him. Batman tells him not to let his emotions get the best of him.

"Before I ever make a decision out of anger that I would come to regret, I always hear that voice in the back of my head saying 'You can't let your emotions get the best of you.' "

Lane firmly believes that role models can have a major influence over how one lives their life, and he says he picked the right one in Batman.

The Batmen: Actors who have played Batman – "Holy smokes, Batman!" Adam West might be the best-known of the Batmen. His campy, over-the-top portrayal of the Worlds Greatest Detective led to the popularity of the 1966 to 1968 Batman television series and the first full-length feature film, "Batman: The Movie" in 1966. Later West would voice the character in "The New Adventures of Batman" and "Super Friends." Click through to see other actors who have played the Caped Crusader of Gotham City.

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Photos: Actors who played Batman8 photos

Lewis Wilson – Lewis Wilson is famous for being the first actor to play Batman in live action in 1943's "Batman." He was the youngest and the least successful of all the Batmen.

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Photos: Actors who played Batman8 photos

Robert Lowery – Robert Lowery became the second person to portray the character in the 1949 movie serial, "Batman and Robin." Although he never played the character in another movie, he did guest star on an episode of "The Adventures of Superman." This was the first time a Batman actor and a Superman actor shared the screen.

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Photos: Actors who played Batman8 photos

Michael Keaton – Twenty years after Adam West's Batman came Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman." He played more of a dark, explosive Batman, the opposite of West's goofy type. Keaton's performance in the Tim Burton movie received favorable reviews, and he became the first actor to reprise the role in 1992's "Batman Returns" with Danny DeVito as the Penguin.

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Photos: Actors who played Batman8 photos

Val Kilmer – When the franchise changed directors, it also changed actors. Val Kilmer became one of the more forgettable Batmen in 1995's "Batman Forever." Director Joel Schumacher called Kilmer "childish and impossible" to work with. He was destined to be a one-term superhero and left the Batcave for good rather than filming "Batman & Robin."

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Photos: Actors who played Batman8 photos

George Clooney – Handsome, up-and-coming actor George Clooney was cast as the Caped Crusader in 1997's "Batman & Robin." The film received some of the worst reviews, and Clooney once joked that he helped to kill the franchise. Although the film did nothing to hurt Clooney's career, it frequently is cited among one of the worst films of all time. Chris O'Donnell, left, portrayed Robin.

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Photos: Actors who played Batman8 photos

Christian Bale – After the disaster of "Batman & Robin," the franchise was destined to remain a joke until director Christopher Nolan came along to reinvent the role and finally make the Dark Knight, well, dark. Christian Bale became the new Batman in 2005's "Batman Begins," 2008's "The Dark Knight" and finally "The Dark Knight Rises" in 2012. Though the films were extremely successful, Bale's Batman voice was often criticized and would get even more gravelly and bizarre throughout the three films.

He grew up with a speech impediment. As a child, he had to practice with a speech therapist in the mornings, then practiced reading in the afternoons after school. Once he opened up a Batman comic book, he immediately became a fan and became more interested in reading out loud.

"Batman helped me find my voice," he said.

The character continued to be a big part of Vizcaino's life when he would move to different parts of the United States and switch schools.

"During these periods of transition, I would always have a period of intense loneliness before I would make friends and during this time, Batman would be there to help through that time," said the Austin, Texas, resident.

It's no wonder that children battling adversity -- such as cancer survivor Miles Scott, who got to be "Batkid" in San Francisco in November as part of his Make-a-wish project -- see the brave and fearless Batman as their favorite hero.

"Batman turns weakness into strength," said Travis Langley, a professor of psychology at Henderson State University in Arkansas and a fellow Bat-fan. "Bruce Wayne took his own childhood fears and made something better out of them."

Hawkins could not agree more.

"Batman really touched me. He inspired me. He helped me. And to this day I have a sense of justice and decency."